Jerry Miles, 51, a native of Chicago, and David Sarber, 50, a lifelong resident of Carbondale and mechanic for Yellow Cab, are a kind of odd couple.
Miles is filled with laughter and one-liners, and Sarber appears reserved and somewhat stoic on first impression.
Miles said he met Sarber 13 years ago while collecting cans near Sarber’s home. One day he knocked on his neighbor’s door for cans and Sarber invited him in for a beer. After talking, they had an instant connection.
The ethnic difference between the men didn’t matter in their friendship.
“He’s like a brother to me; I don’t care about all that race stuff,” Miles said.
About two and a half years ago, Sarber was diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. After Sarber’s diagnosis, Miles said he decided he would offer a helping hand in maintaining the taxis his friend has worked on for 30 years.
Both men work as mechanics at Yellow Cab now, and Sarber is training Miles to take over after he retires.
“I gotta hang up the tools,” Sarber said.
Sarber said the job is getting more difficult, and he wants to devote more time to his health
Sarber has an implant, a “port,” under his skin used for receiving chemotherapy.
He said if the implant would be bumped or caught on something while he was crawling under a car, he would most likely bleed to death because it goes directly through an artery.
He said training his friend and retiring are his main goals now.The two also recently became business partners. Their company, Salt and Pepper Meat Rabbits, started small, with only a handful of rabbits. Now they have about 88 baby and 32 adult rabbits they sell for meat.
“He’s salt and I’m pepper, get it?” Miles said.
Sarber raised rabbits as a child and figured it was something he’d like to do again.
